A confounding problem.

[Mog]

Hi,

I would just like to say hello to everyone and see if I can find someone to help me with a little problem I'm having.



I have a number of users with broken authentication (e.g. ssh just returns a connection closed, who cannot run su -auth failed and cannot change their passwords) (they are all running intrepid).

I know it is caused by a ubuntu update (but I haven't been able to track down which one - but have listed the only ones it can be at the end of this. I know this because these updates were applied on a working machine - mine - and it was broken afterward).

After investigation, the following changes fix their problems...
/etc/pam.d/common-account
Change:
account [success=1 new_authtok_reqd=done default=ignore] pam_unix.so
To:
account [success=3 new_authtok_reqd=done default=ignore] pam_unix.so

/etc/pam.d/common-auth
Change:
auth [success=1 default=ignore] pam_unix.so nullok_secure
To:
auth [success=2 default=ignore] pam_unix.so nullok_secure

/etc/pam.d/common-password
Change:
password [success=1 default=ignore] pam_unix.so obscure sha512
To:
password [success=2 default=ignore] pam_unix.so obscure sha512

My question is: what do the success= values mean? and why does it break authentication?

The list of updates that could have caused this are...

libck-connector0 (0.2.10-1ubuntu10)

consolekit (0.2.10-1ubuntu10)

dpkg-dev (1.14.20ubuntu6.1)

libgvfscommon0 (1.0.2-0ubuntu2)

gvfs (1.0.2-0ubuntu2)

gvfs-backends (1.0.2-0ubuntu2)

gvfs-bin (1.0.2-0ubuntu2)

gvfs-fuse (1.0.2-0ubuntu2)

hal-info (20090128-0ubuntu1~intrepid2)

kde-icons-oxygen (4:4.1.4-0ubuntu1~intrepid1)

kdelibs5-data (4:4.1.4-0ubuntu1~intrepid1)

kdebase-runtime-data-common (4:4.1.4-0ubuntu1~intrepid1)

kdebase-runtime-data (4:4.1.4-0ubuntu1~intrepid1)

libpam-ck-connector (0.2.10-1ubuntu10)

libpq5 (8.3.6-0ubuntu8.10)

libxine1-bin (1.1.15-0ubuntu3.1intrepid1)

libxine1-misc-plugins (1.1.15-0ubuntu3.1intrepid1)

libxine1-ffmpeg (1.1.15-0ubuntu3.1intrepid1)

libxine1-plugins (1.1.15-0ubuntu3.1intrepid1)

libxine1-x (1.1.15-0ubuntu3.1intrepid1)

libxine1-console (1.1.15-0ubuntu3.1intrepid1)

libxine1 (1.1.15-0ubuntu3.1intrepid1)

rhythmbox (0.11.6svn20081008-0ubuntu4.3)

sudo (1.6.9p17-1ubuntu2.1)

kdelibs-bin (4:4.1.4-0ubuntu1~intrepid1)

kdelibs5 (4:4.1.4-0ubuntu1~intrepid1)

kdebase-runtime-bin-kde4 (4:4.1.4-0ubuntu1~intrepid1)

kdebase-runtime (4:4.1.4-0ubuntu1~intrepid1)

khelpcenter4 (4:4.1.4-0ubuntu1~intrepid1)

kmix (4:4.1.4-0ubuntu1~intrepid1)

ksnapshot (4:4.1.4-0ubuntu1~intrepid1)

python-kde4 (4:4.1.4-0ubuntu1~intrepid1)

I thank you all in advance for your help.

Regards,
Mog

[Sourakhata]

Do you think we're some kind of customer service or helpdesk ?

At least take a moment to introduce yourself that's the least you can do when you asking for help.

[Godssoulja]

This post should be in the pc help and technology section, but as stated you should've at least introduced yourself. Check out the site rules and objectives while you are at it.